1/18/10

A Cry in the Night (1956) was directed by Frank Tuttle, who made Puritan Passions (1923), A Kiss in the Dark (1925), and This Gun For Hire (1942). Young Natalie Wood, who was lost between The Searchers and The Burning Hills, plays a headstrong girl who needs to learn her lesson after rebelling without a cause. Edmond O'Brien plays Natalie's overwrought father and overacts a storm. Brian Donlevy, the man with "the shortest arms in Hollywood," plays a no-nonsense detective. Richard Anderson, who made a career out of playing dweebs, is Natalie's concerned boyfriend. Closet case Raymond Burr, who had just finished Godzilla and was not yet Perry Mason, plays a nutjob who kidnaps Natalie. The poster for A Cry in the Night is slightly better than the movie. (And this is what passes for serious and insightful film criticism here at Starlet Showcase? Oh my!)